Jupiter | Harry James Potter

lxxxiii ; weasley is our king

Hermione soon devised a very clever method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the members in case they needed to change it at short notice, because it would look extremely suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often. She gave each of the members of the D.A. a fake Galleon (Ron became very excited when he saw the basket at first, convinced that she was actually giving out gold).

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches. "On real Galleons that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting he'll change the numbers on his coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his."

A blank silence greeted Hermione's words. She looked around at all the faces upturned to her, rather disconcerted.

"Well — I thought it was a good idea," she said uncertainly, "I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But... well, if you don't want to use them..."

"You can do a Protean Charm?" Terry Boot asked.

"Yes," Hermione muttered.

"But that's... that's N.E.W.T. standard, that is," he said weakly.

"Oh," Hermione said, trying to look modest. "Oh... well... yes, I suppose it is..."

"How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" he demanded, staring at Hermione with something close to wonder. "With brains like yours?"

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," Hermione grinned brightly, "but it decided on Gryffindor in the end. So does that mean we're using the Galleons?"

There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forward to collect one from the basket. Harry looked sideways at Hermione. "You know what these remind me of?"

"No, what's that?"

"The Death Eaters' scars. Voldemort touches one of them, and all their scars burn, and they know they've got to join him."

Hermione's face flushed with warmth, and Jupiter let out a laugh. "Are you seriously comparing us to Death Eaters right now?"

"Well, I mean, he's not exactly wrong..." Hermione said quietly. "That is where I got the idea... but you'll notice I decided to engrave the date on bits of metal rather than on our members' skin..."

"Yeah... I prefer your way," Harry shrugged, grinning, dropping his Galleon into his pocket as he threw his other arm around Jupiter's shoulder. She didn't miss the opportunity to look Cora Farraway dead in the eyes as she was walking out. "I suppose the only danger with these is that we might accidentally spend them."

"Fat chance," Ron scoffed, who was examining his own fake Galleon with a slightly mournful air. "I haven't got any real Galleons to confuse it with."

-

As the first Quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, drew nearer, their D.A. meetings were put on hold because Angelina Johnson insisted on almost daily practices. The fact that the Quidditch Cup had not been held for so long added considerably to the interest and excitement surrounding the forthcoming game to everyone except for Jupiter. Now that Quidditch was back, she got to spend considerably less time with her boyfriend, and when she did get to be with him, all he talked about was the stupid game.